LITTLE PLANET

September 2020

​(Runner-up, Blue Earth Review Flash Contest)

You realized one day that you had the power to create a small planet. So that’s what you did. You made a little planet that fit in the palm of your hand like a marble. You populated your planet with lots of little people. You can’t see them with the naked eye, but you know they’re there. Then you forgot about your planet for a while and went shopping at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

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You felt guilty, so you bought them all some tiny rivers and trees, and you bought a little mountain and put it in the center where everyone lived. Well, almost everyone. Some people were afraid, and so they ran away to hide in the forest and caves. You bought the planet some tiny clouds, but it ended up being too many clouds, and so it rained nonstop for a hundred years, and by the end of it everyone was soaking wet and in a bad mood. While you were gone, people had tried to climb the mountain, and there were little dead bodies scattered all over it. In fact, there were little dead bodies lying around everywhere, and it was a real mess. So, you taught the people who were still alive to shoot the bodies into space, and they became the stars.

The people were having trouble getting around, so you gave them all tiny seahorses to ride. You let the people name their seahorses, but they gave them all stupid names like Fred and Nancy. When the people misbehaved, you took away the sun and hid it in your pocket, and everyone grew pale and slept until noon. The sun burned a tiny hole in your pocket, so you gave it back, and the little people were thankful, and they promised not to act like dicks again.

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It went on like this, dying and climbing mountains and riding seahorses and shooting bodies into space. Sometimes, you thought the little planet was a mistake, and you thought about throwing it down a well, but instead you put it away in a drawer and tried not to think about it. In time, the little planet went cold, and everyone went to sleep, and the seahorses snored loudly as they dreamed, and the only light was the glimmer from the eyes of the little bodies orbiting high above them.